Said Gionta: “It’s discouraging. The fact that not too many people have had it and it happens in back-to-back years, it’s definitely hard to deal with.”

The Canadiens also announced that forwards Ryan White and Brandon Prust are definitely out for Game 5 with upper-body injuries, joining Gionta, Alexei Emelin and Lars Eller on the sidelines. Goalie Carey Price is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury.

Eller, who suffered a concussion and facial injuries when he was hit by Ottawa defenceman Eric Gryba in Game 1, skated Wednesday in Brossard, but is unlikely to see any further playoff action unless the Canadiens get past the Senators.

“It’s great news to see him on the ice, to see him around the team, because this is a kid that everybody likes,” Therrien said of Eller. “He’s a good kid and we’re all really upset with what happened to him. But to see him around the team means a lot to the players, to the coaching staff and everyone involved with the team.”

After watching our defence for the past three games, I thought to myself a guy like Dion Pheneuff would be a good add – hard nosed, PK and PP guy then I watched the overtime last night and thought to myself – I must have been a knob to think about Dion in a Habs jersey!! I have seen the error of my ways.

I’m okay with this line-up. I would like MT to at least consider playing either Weber or Kaberle instead of Diaz. Diaz has not been the same since the Eller hit. Weber is better than Kaberle but Kaberle has more experience. Would also justify playing PK 30 minutes tonight (by playing Kaberle less then 10 minutes).

I actually kind of like these. I don’t think that Therrien will have the balls to put the kids with Plekanec, but I think that could create the game breaking line that is needed under these depleted circumstances.

I would suspect he is more likely to go with
Bourque Plekanec Ryder
and leave Galchenyuk on the third line just out of conservatism

Why all the the time these lame excuses over and over, saying if the Habs were healthy they would no be down 3-1???
Uh, duh! Injuries are part of the game for any club.
We got depth so players are easily replaced, so they say.
And the smaller players like Gionta, or soft players are prone more to injuries than the big, grittier players.
Major overhaul and work to be done in Year 2 for Habs’ brass, major indeed!

Your posts are getting worse Mikey.
No kidding that teams have injuries. That doesn’t make it less difficult when it happens. We’ve lost some pretty significant players and are coping the best we can. Without Eller and with some banged up players, we still played 3 pretty decent games and deserve a better fate.
That said, if our depth isn’t quite there, so be it. It’s not like you can have star players waiting in the pressbox for injuries to happen. You make do with secondary players the best you can.
Prust is neither small, nor soft…same goes for White, so there goes that theory. Do you put any thought at all into your posts?

The Habs can still win, but it will be tough. If they do, they won’t go much farther with this many injuries. Other teams had injuries 20 games ago. We have them now. It happens.
The team will make some changes and try to be better next season.

Go Habs Go!!

“Fans are great, but the quickest way to start losing is to listen to them.” – Sam Pollock

Paul,
Injuries are something that always happens in pro sports, you learn to recuperate and get on with what you have.
But the team has always, always, had injuries with their soft and fragile players in the past. That is nothing new.
You stated “The team will make some changes and try to be better next season”,

“Some changes” is not good enough and “try” is not a word in my books as well.

Come on now Mike, I know you like to sing the same song over and over despite what’s really going on but even you might notice that the Habs injured are their bigger grittier players, Prust, White, Eller and Emelin. Kind of lame to pull Gionta’s injury out and try to fit it to the Bigger is better agenda.

By the way, how’s that working for the Leafs, and man I’m glad the Habs held on to Subban after you’ve been calling for him to be traded for years and said the kid was overrated by irrational Hab fans. Where are Mathieu Carle and the great Don Lever now a days, it must be disappointing to you that the never came anywhere near where you projected them to be.

Plus I don’t think there are many Hab fans around who still don’t think this team is a work in progress, they were the worst team in the league last year. Doesn’t take a genius to realize Bergevin isn’t done retooling this team.

As well, can you point out to me what game the Habs have lost because of they are to small and to soft. And on the flip side of that can you point out what games the Leafs have won because of how big a hockey team they are?
And as a follow up, the Flyers are generally regarded as the ideal, Bigger and Badder hockey team, can you let me know how they are doing in this years playoffs.

Follow up #2, Boston also fits the Bigger is Badder mode, so between them and Philly how many Stanley Cups have they won since 1974? I think one, right. Between the two, that’s 80 years of hockey, not really a ringing endorsement of the type of Hockey you seem to think it takes to win a Stanley Cup

We had a shortened season. If we we had a 82 game schedule, the Flyers would make the playoffs.
We made the playoffs in a shortened lockout schedule, and I really believe if we played a full schedule, we would not end up in 2nd or 8th as well and the Flyers would make it.
Bet our money on Boston making it to the final and take notes to see what we need to make us like Boston or a team like the Kings or St. Louis.
Get back to mt when one of these teams wins the Cup.“We will win the Cup one day only with ? in the nets “

But Mikey, you predicted Toronto would beat the Bruins, now you are predicting the Bruins in the Finals, so the idea is to keep making predictions until you get one right?

And I love how you are trying to square that circle as far as the Flyers making the playoffs and the Habs not, in a 82 game season. Seems whenever you are shown to be wrong, you just move the goal post again.

Also, talk about lame excuses, the season was to short for the Flyers to make the playoffs, is probably the best one I’ve ever heard.

I’m not looking ahead to game 6 or 7 but just tonight. If we win tonight, perhaps we can plant a bit of doubt in their minds then who knows. This is going to be all the tougher because of injuries but it’s still doable if we can start putting pucks past Anderson.

Observations and questions. I guess there’s crying in hockey. With Gionta out, did we just get bigger? Time to trade one Sedin. Everyone blaming officials? Where there’s smoke? I’m sure he has a wonderful personality but James Reimer must be a multi millionaire because geeky guys like him just don’t get girls like that in the real world. Anyone miss Ryan O’Byrne? Man, did he have a rough game last night. Oh and … Ottawa sucks! Go Habs!

Before I go into the changes, I would like to say that Maclean is a big hypocrite. In game 3 he instructed his team to knock the smaller Habs dmen into Price so they would not get penalized by bumping Price themselves, I now find him to be classless, in the same barrell as Julien. After the breaks the referees gave the Sens to let them tie and eventually win game 4, he should shut his mouth.

My suggestions for the off season;
Trade Gionta, Gorges, DD, Moen and Weber, if he won’t be given a chance to play. Use them to get extra picks and 4th line wingers that can add playoff type grit and size, and can play. Also one net clearing defenceman.
Let Ryder and all their UFA’s walk
Buyout Kaberle

If Bergevin trades players strictly for picks and prospects, then add more UFA’s and let the kids have one more season in Hamilton to develop
Team with these changes
Left Centre Right
Patches Pleks Bourque
Galchenyuk Eller Gallagher
Prust Bozak Kristo
Torres Nattinen Blunden

Well here’s what I’d like to do… start a website that replays the poor calls by zebras in every game, using their names to highlight just how poor and or biased they are. Notice that they don’t have their names on their jerseys anymore specifically to hide them from scorn… You can’t call them out. You can’t talk back to them and they get paid 100’s of thousands of dollars to make a mockery of the game of hockey. Who’s with me in setting this website up?

Promote the Youth, Support From The Veterans and Remember the Heritage!

Folks, why is Chris F. Lee still officiating? We all know the zebras make this league a joke. They don’t use instant replays because the action is too fast and too many calls are missed and muffed-up on. But when guys like Lee, who are always good for a few bad, or biased calls per game, keep insulting this great game, why aren’t they censured or outright fired and what can we do about it in this dictatorial league?

Promote the Youth, Support From The Veterans and Remember the Heritage!

Try to find anyone that wants to be a ref. That why the Peels and the Lees have employment. Look to the minor league abuse of officials that begins in atom and goes up to the NHL. Many who would be excellent leave. Why should they always be subject to crap? Would you take a job like that?

Had another neat Canadiana moment last night. Like Monday night I had a baseball game, and like Monday my buddy brought his TV and rabbit ears to the ballpark. After the game as we enjoyed some of Molsons product, we watched the hockey game. People came by walking their dog and laughed saying, to think we used to listen to the radio outside after ball games, and now you guys are watching hockey in HD in a parking lot.

It was the most fun I have ever had watching a Leafs Bruins game. Great to be Canadian, with our passion for all thing hockey.

Sens come in over confident and the Habs play their game for 60 MINUTES and win.

60 minutes gentlemen, 60 minutes!

Therrien you gotta use everything that’s left in the tank to get them going. From the the Sens coach with no respect, and making fun of our players after games, to the Sun article written this morning in Toronto, to the phrase “we play every shift like it’s the last shift you’ll ever play”.

Jim we (all Habs fans) understand how hard it is, and what’s missing. But you know my story, I just can’t let things get me down. My brain is injured and certain emotions trigger things in my head out of my control.

Hockey is the one thing that gets me through the day. That’s pretty sad, but it’s better than sitting by the dryer (get it).

I know they are too small in defense, I know Carey has problems in goal, I know Therrien is making small mistakes, and I know how important it is for Quebec’s Habs to win, but I ignore all that and have fun.

It’s why I am so hard on these people that come to a FAN Forum, and with every single post try and destroy the Habs with words.

Well I am done with those fans, they want to destroy our team then I am giving it right back to them.

GO HABS GO

GO HABS GO

EDIT-(violin in background, a puppy looks up and barks, a sad pony walks in and says HEY GET ME A BEER BYI)

Your still stalking the nay sayers Shane are you. We have all heard you relate your story many times on here but that does not give you some right to keep calling those people out. This is still a site owned by the Gazette and if they (Gazette) did not want them here they would ban those type people you stalk. I have said this before and I’ll say it again, use your own advise and smile and wave. This self righteousness of yours is not becoming you or the morals you profess elsewhere. I can tell how much you love and cherish your family so is this what you would like to pass on to your children as I way to quite or stomp out those YOU don’t like ? I would hope not Shane so smile and wave at them, don’t call out the adgitaters by name the way you do.

This has been a fun stepping stone kind of season. New players like Gallagher and Galchenyuk are leading the Youth Movement now in progress. Unfortunately, it’s going to take some time.
Here is a tune to show exactly how I feel, now thatThe End is Near

Too many injuries at the absolute worse time. I hope MB does not go into the off season thinking this team is better then they actually are because of it. It would be a huge mistake to go into the off season thinking this team is close to be complete. A lot of work yet to be done.

It does seem very odd. Obviously neither of us have any information to show he is doing anything untowards in his training, but i will say that it is foolish to think Steroids are not used in the NHL as heavily as other pro sports.

The reason i speculate, is many athletes as they get older have increased their body mass to an extent larger than the frame naturally can support. As a player gets older the player can begin to break down.

I hope your right, and you probably are. Perhaps when his other bicep tore as a freak injury, he overcompensated in training hoping to prevent happening again? And in the process, over did it?

You know, watching Phaneuf go out of his way to hit someone on that OT goal last night just made me happy. Seeing that idiot’s article in the Sun made me not feel too guilty about it. Ruins won’t get out of the next round anyway.

HI/O posters love to hate the Bruins and laffs but that was a great game last night. Lots of high tempo action in both ends. Very entertaining. Toronto has some really good kids to build around. The only player who stood out in a negative way was O’Byrne. It doesn’t appear that he has improved much from his days in Montreal.

I also wonder about the ice conditions in the ACC. A lot of players seemed to keep falling down for no apparent reason.

I agree Steve – I just watched it, and it was a very entertaining game all around. The best thing about it was I didn’t really care who won. Well, not entirely, as I kind of dislike the bruins more, so…

Morning Cal. That’s today’s “gotta be tough” NHL. I see players all the time taking themselves out of the play to make a BIG hit. I was always taught that you hit someone to separate them from the puck. Today’s hits are often more designed to get on Sports Centre highlights.

Big game. Not sure how much damage we can do even if we win the series. Missing:
Emelin
Eller
Prust
White
Gionta
Price
Is huge but how about we take it one game at a time? We don’t have much to lose at this point. GO HABS GO!

Classless article, but the class of jean beliveau is a bit of a curse IMO A team needs players with bad attitudes, and I fear the organization just wants a bunch Beliveaus; nice guys who are media friendly and perfect off ice.

[Disclaimer]: I’m a hockey fan. I care about the habs, but probably not as much as you.

Beliveau a bit of a curse!!! FYI I would LOVE a bunch of Beliveaus right now…..not like he was soft when he played. Beliveau was a BLESSING to this organization and in no way a curse. Was Gretz also? Should EDM fans fondly remember Pronger and not so much Gretz because Gretz was classy!? Sorry cat, but this GrosBill has to disagree.

There’s no doubt, Jim, we Hab fans are sensitive to any perceived slight directed the Canadiens’ way but I think a strong case could be made our frustration and anger are not born out of paranoia. Every broadcast, it seems, carries at least the suggestion of an anti-Montreal mindset. With PJ and his comments concerning Subban, the bias is overt.

According to finnish media Teemu Selänne made a bet with his teammates during his first NHL-season. Selänne said that it’s so much easier to play in Europe and that’s why he’ll play in the NHL only for three years, max four.
Thomas Steen and Fredrik Olausson disagreed and made a bet with him.

Actually if you get the whole camera shot, there is a guy right next to Cuthbert just out of camera angle on your link,, the guy gets up and probably says something quite unflattering about Reimer after the goal, and Cuthbert and Remeir’s wife react accordingly, they are actually very good friends..

In short, a league commissioner is the action man for the Board of Governors.

They tell him what they want done and he works to make it happen through his subordinates while making sure that individual franchises play by the rules.

******** Translated if you haven’t won the Stanley Cup in 40 years your NHL team is becoming irrelevant in a sports mad city long behind MLB, NFL and NBA teams, you just tell the commissioner(who you gave a new contract at 7 plus million per) to make it happen and the rules are bent sufficiently to action the command.

if you sit with great unwashed some heckling cannot be a surprise!
Not implying its acceptable but shouldn’t come as a surprise!
Thick skin is a prerequisite for the sports GF position.

———————————————————————-
What does the Commissioner of the NHL do?

In short, a league commissioner is the action man for the Board of Governors.

They tell him what they want done and he works to make it happen through his subordinates while making sure that individual franchises play by the rules.

******** Translated if you haven’t won the Stanley Cup in 40 years your NHL team is becoming irrelevant in a sports mad city long behind MLB, NFL and NBA teams, you just tell the commissioner(who you gave a new contract at 7 plus million per) to make it happen and the rules are bent sufficiently to action the command.

I’m sorry but Therrien’s really starting to get on my nerves. He’s got to keep this s@$! together a bit more. He’s about as emotionally stable as a teenage girl. Try and finish the season with a bit of composure big guy. It’s getting embarrassing for the rest of us.

I can’t see size been that big a factor. Ottawa has 7-Guys under 200lbs HABS has 8
Myself I’d say they’ve out played us on “D” and in Net and that is the difference although injuries is becoming a factor after the last game …..

Canucks didn’t win a game. Islanders throwing a wrench into Sydneys plans. It’s still pretty good being a Habs fan…………just go on a 2 game winning streak. That’s all I ask…………..get us to Sunday night at home

The trick is to find these guys……everybody has them on their wish list. If you draft them, they may never make it to the show. Most UFA in their right minds do not want to play in Montreal, where the standards are set so high and no privacy.

Weather sucks for 5 months, Language issues, Media issues, fan issues…..so complicated. They like to play in a warmer climate, with privacy and less media attention with one language.

I think it’s more crucial to have size and physicality on defense in terms of priorities. Guys who make the D zone a scary zone to play in. Of course, being able to move and make smart passes is also a must otherwise you’re stuck with a bunch of pylons.

I have been watching all of the other play off series every night so far during this Stanley Cup playoffs. In general the refs are actually doing a pretty good job and calling quite a few penalties in every game across the board. Hooking, Holding, Interference, Roughing and Cross Checking to the face. There is no grey area for calls except for overtime where you basically have to try and decapitate a guy for there to be a penalty.

The linesman are more efficient at dropping the puck and keep the game moving. They also waive off icings and get the face offs right. Another thing I’m noticing as I watch the other games is that the crew is also on top of the post whistle nonsense in an instant. No chance for retaliation penalties because they jump in there right away. If you punch a guy in the face you take a seat in the box. Cross check a guy more than once, have a seat in the box.

This kind of officiating is missing from the Habs/Sens series. It is so blatantly one sided that even if the refs gave us every call for the next three games they would still owe us a few more. It is disgusting and certainly an ugly blemish on what has otherwise been a pretty good Stanley Cup playoffs so far.

What is worse is that I also ref, only garage league hockey sure but I bust my ass out there every single time to make sure I get the damn calls right. When I get it wrong I even let the guys know after the game. I will let the guys know after if I messed up the call or blew the whistle at the wrong time, but I will still stand by the call I made because in the heat of the game sometimes you miss stuff because you are trying to watch everyone on the ice. For the mos part they understand. The really sad part is these NHL guys are supposed to be the best refs that the game has to offer. And they are supposed to work as a 4 man team and have each others backs to make all the correct calls.

It’s sad really, how can the guys at the top of the profession completely blow it at the biggest moments?

What is astonishing about the face-off mistake is that it was not during the play. It is understandable for refs to make mistakes at full speed…but the play was stopped in this case. You also had every Hab complaining as well. It just doesn’t make any sense why they could not have conferred and got it right. They really did not care about the Habs…disgraceful.

They will go to video if they have to in order to make sure they get the personnel right for icings. I also don’t understand why they couldn’t do this for face offs. Also I don’t understand how 4 guys who are supposed to be at the pinnacle of their profession could have missed this. 4 guys who are going to receive a huge bonus for working the Stanley Cup playoffs and not one of them cared enough to do their job correctly.

Refs made available to the media after games. Also the league reviewing all of the calls and making a public statement of the calls that they got wrong that specifically changed the outcome of the game, much like they do in MLB and the NFL. Also the refs and umpires in those leagues are evaluated based on their calls throughout the season and the guys that do their jobs the best are rewarded with post season appearances. You have a bad year, you don’t make the post season. Just the same as the teams in the league. As I have stated before the refs are a 4 man team out there on the ice. They need to start working together to get the calls correct on the ice.

League apologized about the faceoff being in the wrong dot before the 1st Sens goal, and Therrien had the wrong centre on the ice as a result… He was flipping on the bench, before the draw.
*************************************************
On what side would the combo of Desharnais/Gallagher / and Pacioretty be the “right” side. Desharnias got booted , Gallagher took the draw.Coaching error not to have two capable centerman on the ice in the last ten minutes leading by two goals.Halpern was picked up for this reason, Armstrong + Dumont benched the entire third period.

Even had the refs been decent and we won the game the personnel management was terribly wrong.

Sometimes the team wins despite the coach ,aking bad moves. Sometimes a team loses despite the coach doing everything right.

Last night’s loss can be blamed on many factors that were NOT under our control, But that does not change the fact that the coach made some terrible personnel decisions and we MAY have won the game had he just utilized the “right” players.

In my opinion a face off on the wrong side of the ice, is not nearly as big of a mistake as keeping your best defensive players on the bench for the third period when leading by two goals,

Coaching that even allows the possibility that Gallagher will be taking a face-off in the defensive zone, is just bad coaching. period.

a couple of points:
– Halpern was supposed to the money-guy on faceoffs when he was picked up, but he sucks. DD was our best last night.
– You can’y play our top defensive guys for the full 20 mintes each period. The 2 blown icing calls prevented MT from normal changes and he had no timeout, so PK and other were gassed.

Face off on the wrong side when it is your job to make sure the face off is done on the correct side is actually a pretty major error. In my job that would be like installing a post for your support beam in the wrong place causing some sagging and cracking at first but ultimately leading to a catastrophic failure of your structure.

Face off on the wrong side = wrong personnel coupled with linesman inexplicably throwing out the center again which ultimately led to a catastrophic failure of both the refs and the Toronto war room to do their actual jobs. After that some more questionable icing calls led to yet another failure. The rest is history…

How is it terribly wrong if it has been producing good results? The Habs scored goals and played really well for the majority of the series. They’ve been stiffed by the refs and had poor luck.

How are the decisions poor? You take for granted that you know enough to call the shots, but you gotta realize that MT knows what is going on. He has a system that has worked very well and he knows his players better than any one of us.

If they Habs were healthy and fresh, like most teams happened to be going into the playoffs, then they could do a lot more damage than they are now. I bet they could go to at least the conference final.
Stay positive, Habs are on the right path.

When even Don Cherry goes after the refs for stiffing the Habs, you know they blew it big time. The more I watch that face off placement, the more astonished I get. What could their explanation possibly have been? It is because of crap like this people come up with conspiracy theories. I’m sure the ref or linesman who was responsible for that will be disciplined…yeah right…